Fearlessly Queer!
The People Who Remind Me Love Is Real
Hey, Well Read Baddies!
Before we get in to it, friendly reminder that the Publishing Journeys Grant that we’re giving away in partnership with Gatekeeper Press is officially open through July 8! This grant was created to support writers who are ready to take the next step in their publishing journey.
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I keep coming back to the definition of fearless.
Being fearless means acting with courage, resolve, and determination in the face of danger or uncertainty. It does not mean fear disappears. It means something inside you decides to move anyway.
That feels like Pride to me.
In the face of so much political and social unrest, I have been thinking about what Pride means when the world feels heavy. Pride is celebration, of course. It is glitter, joy, chosen family, good music, loud laughter, and outfits that deserve their own museum wing. It is also memory. It is protest. It is people choosing to live out loud in a world that has spent too much time trying to make them shrink.
And maybe that is why Fearless Pride feels so important this year.
Because love is real. Community is real. The courage to become yourself in public, in private, in art, in work, in friendship, and in the middle of uncertainty is real.
When I think about fearlessness, I think about people I know. Queer people who are living, creating, dreaming, fighting, healing, and making space for the rest of us to believe in something better. I wanted to use this Pride Month to shout out a few of my friends who inspire me in different spaces and seasons of life. The common thread is purpose. Each of them, in their own way, is working toward something bigger than themselves, and I feel lucky to know them.
I asked each of these folks the same question, “What does living fearlessly mean to you right now?”
Here is a little bit about each of them and their responses.
What does living fearlessly mean to you right now?
Hayley Procacci (they/them)
Hayley is a playwright, a non-binary theater nerd, and someone whose work reminds me that storytelling can hold grief and beauty at the same time.
I recently watched their show, Don’t Ask, at the UAB Alys Stephens Center, and I fell head over heels in love with their vision for the story. Based on real-life events involving their aunt, the show was riveting. It explored what it feels like when family doesn’t show up for you, when the people who should protect you actively harm your mental health, and when you are left trying to survive a loneliness you never asked for.
What inspired me most was the care in the writing. Hayley did not just tell a story. They honored one. That takes courage. It takes a special kind of fearlessness to turn pain into art and trust that someone in the audience will feel seen by it.
Learn more about Hayley: https://www.hayleyprocacci.com/
When I think of what it means to be queer, I think Bell Hooks said it best.
“Queer not as being about who you’re having sex with; but ‘queer’ as being “at odds with everything around it and that had to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live”
in a way, I think living fearlessly queer is boldly seeking experiences in direct opposition to what society demands of us
right now, for me—that is softness in a world built for armor.
it is pause before speaking, knowing there is no need to prove. I’ll always have the time to get my thoughts out, to feel understood in my own skin.
it is a Sunday dinner nestled in the crevices of Chicago’s edgewater with chosen family.
it is favors done for others without a point system. it is fair trading of resources—
I’ll tailor your pants
or
can I borrow your car to pick up a secondhand couch?
it is holding the sacred core of my being and knowing that in order to walk through life fearlessly as me, not everyone will understand me. not everyone will love me, and not everyone will choose me.
Realizing that felt like grief, until it set me free.
Hayley Procacci
Zoe Gage (she/her)
Zoe is a fashion designer, a bisexual diva of your dreams, and someone I have admired for years because she has always had the nerve to find her place in the world.
I’ll never forget when she left undergrad to attend a fashion school in LA. A real-life movie. The kind of thing I would have watched from my couch while saying, “Could I ever?” and the answer at the time would have been absolutely not. I didn’t have the balls for it, but I cheered her on from the sidelines because when you see your people moving, you clap. Loudly.
Zoe’s fearlessness shows up in her willingness to bet on herself. She reminds me that sometimes the life you want requires a decision other people may not understand at first. And sometimes, you have to go anyway.
Learn more about Zoe: babycakes.online
Living fearless to me means letting go of expectations that others put on you and only honoring the goals you set for yourself. If you feel aligned with yourself, your confidence will cement you, and you can stand on everything you do.
Zoe Gage
Abby Franks (she/her)
Abby is an environmentalist, an activist, and a fearless leader in the truest sense.
She fights for our climate and the land we inhabit with a passion that is powerful to witness. She cares deeply about people, place, and the future we are all responsible for protecting. Her work through her podcast, Climate Justice Y’all, focused on climate change in the Southeast show what it means to stay committed to the fight, even when the fight is exhausting.
What I admire about Abby is that she does not look away. She pays attention. She speaks up. She takes on the kind of work that requires patience, knowledge, and a backbone. That is fearless to me.
Learn more about Abby’s podcast: https://www.instagram.com/cjypodcast/
Living fearlessly means being able to show up as my full self to serve others, though we aren’t free until everyone is free!
Abby Franks
JD (he/him)
JD’s artistry is something special.
The way he pours his own experiences into music is powerful, and his latest album feels like proof that healing can have a sound. His work is honest in a way that stays with you. He creates from a real place, and you can hear it.
I am consistently impressed by the way he can take what he has lived through and turn it into songs that make the next person feel less alone. That kind of vulnerability is fearless. To create from your own truth and release it into the world takes courage. To make art that gives somebody else hope is a gift.
Learn More about JD’s music here
To me, living fearlessly means trusting your instincts and following your passions wherever that may lead you. When you show up as yourself, it creates room for others to feel comfortable doing the same.
JD Scott
Autumn (she/her)
Autumn is the crafting queer, the friend who reminds me that checking in with yourself is also a form of courage.
She is smart, thoughtful, talented, and intentional about the way she moves through life. I love how she listens to herself. I love how she makes necessary changes when her life starts asking for something different. There is something so inspiring about watching someone realign with purpose in real time.
She is hopping over the pond next month, and that is pretty damn fearless to me. Starting a new chapter, choosing adventure, and trusting yourself enough to move toward what is next? That deserves applause.
Learn more about Autumn: https://www.tiktok.com/@stishersweets
I think fearlessness is a really interesting concept because I’ve never really felt like a fearless person (I’ve dealt with panic attacks and anxiety and depression since I was like 9 years old). But I made a pact with myself a couple of years ago that I was going to start doing things that scared me- whether it’s taking a class or posting my opinion on social media or reaching out to a new friend to make plans- and my life has become so much richer for it.
I guess to me “living fearlessly” is not the absence of fear (because I feel like I want to throw up and cancel every time I do something new), but having fear as a front seat companion while just doing it anyway. Since I started trying and doing more, I have found the antidote to fear is just to do ~something~ even if it freaks you out.
Autumn Stisher
What They Teach Me
Each of these people shows me a different way to live fearlessly.
Fearlessness can look like writing the story. It can look like moving across the country. It can look like fighting for the land. It can look like turning your truth into music. It can look like choosing a new life because your spirit said it was time.
They remind me that Pride is personal. It is found in the big public moments, and it is also found in the private decisions people make every day to keep becoming.
To my friends: You inspire me to show up with more courage, especially when life feels uncertain. You remind me that community matters. You remind me that love is something we practice, protect, and pour back into the world.
Life is so much better when we have people who make us braver just by being themselves.
Happy Pride, y’all! 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
XOXO,
Sam